Over the last few years, I've had a burning conviction that's been growing and growing as I watch the current craze for 'Apps' blossom. Now, I've nothing against genuine applications or games, but it has to be said that a large number of so-called 'Apps' are simply scraping or managing exactly the same data as you can get right now, on any phone, for free. And, my way, there are no installations, no complications and no hassle. Apps? Pah - I've a new slogan to rival Apple's. "There's a Bookmark for that!"
As you'll have been aware, HyperX and his team have been pumping out various Samsung i8910 HD 'alternative' firmware updates for many months now. 'HX6-Speed', released today in 'Public beta' form, effectively gives you the fastest Symbian touchscreen experience available - at least until the Nokia N8 arrives to challenge. There's a feature summary below, plus links and other comments.
Remember my review of Exclusion and the closing line of "I'm not yet convinced that collecting swirls to reveal a hidden picture adds anything to the game..." Turns out that this is only part of the bigger picture, as the Nokia Ovi Blog now reveal Exclusion is a gateway drug game into the Conspiracy for Good project. Developed by Nokia and Tim Kring, the writer of US TV series “Heroes”, it’s going to mix Alternative Reality Gaming (ARG) music, storytelling and other elements to “effect social change.”
David Gilson reviews a retro title from the Ovi Store in our Ovi Gaming review of Treasure Arm. With all the bells, whistles and game modes of a modern title, Treasure Arm only really disappoints because of a lazy display and control system. Still arcade puzzlers might still want to give this a try.
Nokia's Ovi Store has been updated, with changes to both the mobile client and the publish tool used by developers. The client for S60 3rd Edition and 5th Edition has been updated, from version 1.06(18) to v1.07(12). The key changes are the introduction of 'continuous' pages for content lists (behaving more like the Android Marketplace or Apple App Store), improved search and an updated category structure. The Ovi Publish tool has also been updated with changes to meta-data that developers would be well advised to pay attention to. Read on for more.
In All About Symbian Insight 123, the team discuss the news of the Nokia X5-01 and X6 8GB, which were launched at Nokia Connection in Singapore. Ewan gives us an overview of the Nimbuzz application, before Rafe explains that Symbian^3 is now functionally complete. Finally, Rafe and Steve discuss their thoughts on what they learned at the recent Nokia N8 hands-on event. You can listen to AAS Insight 123 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Starting with a throwaway line from a US podcast, Steve Litchfield works up a head of steam over the ever-slipping battery life standard in our smartphones. How long is long enough when it comes to keeping a modern smartphone going on a single charge? Are we destined to need to carry around mobile chargers in our pocket in 2011 or is there a better way to go? Surely making it through the day is a fundamental that should never be compromised?
Here on our Ovi Gaming specialist site, Ewan uncovers and reviews Exclusion, a new arcade puzzler from Nokia, released for free in the Ovi Store. A crazy combination of Bejewelled, Life and some Star Wars light sabre slashing title, Exclusion ticks all the boxes, features never-ending, always challenging gameplay, works brilliantly on Nokia's S60 5th Edition phones and seems to thoroughly deserve Ewan's 84% score. Not that the score should matter, given the price, but... hey, just download it, will you?
Time Out, best known for its events listings and city guides, has been added to Ovi Maps. The location aware listings are found under the 'More..' section of the main menu (similar to the recently added Qype and Expedia hotel booking). The key benefit of Time Out is its focus on short duration events (e.g. a concert that's on for a single night) and its detailed reviews of events, venues and related services. Time Out listings in Ovi Maps currently cover Chicago, Kuala Lumpur, Lisbon, London, New York, Singapore and Sydney.
The BBC has begun to roll out the latest version of iPlayer, its on-demand and live TV system, for selected S60 3rd and 5th Edition Nokia phones. The new version, 3.0, moves away from its stand-alone widget origins to become a simple widget shortcut, which opens the browser and loads the BBC iPlayer mobile website. However, the core functionality on offer: live streaming, catch-up streaming and download for TV and radio remain the same. Screens and more below.
Ewan surveys the freeware multi-service chat and calling client, Nimbuzz, from from its big v2.4 update. Logging you in and integrating contacts from multiple social networks and chat systems is its speciality and it sounds like it did Ewan proud. It's also not only for multiple mobile platforms, but also for just about every S60 phone currently in use, so there really is no excuse for not keeping it installed and ready for action.
SPB Mobile Shell, which received a rapturous welcome in the Symbian world a few weeks ago - for those that had enough RAM to run it - has had a major update. V3.5.5 uses 10MB less RAM (i.e. half that of the launch version) and also adds a media player widget. The full changelog is below.
Zahir Mahmood is, I suspect, a big Phones Show fan, partly because he links to my video podcast, but also not least because he's come up with his own take on the idea of postulating a number of smartphone use cases and then delivering a winner (or, in his case, a winner, a mid-level alternative and a budget suggestion) for each. His use cases are 'Photography and media capture', 'Entertainment and games', 'Office and work' and 'Internet world'. So familiar territory for me then, but his choices are both interesting and very Symbian-relevant.
Multiple IM client application Nimbuzz has been updated to v2.4. This client now has closer ties with your smartphone’s address book, adds kinetic scrolling throughout the interface for touch enabled devices, has finer options to control Twitter update, and the ability to limit usage while roaming. More below.
